Expanding and contracting circles, mutating colors, and false image matches dominated the 2014 Best Illusion of the Year Contest, held on May 18th in the TradeWinds Island Grand in St. Petersburg, FL. One thousand perceptual scientists joined artists and the general public to determine the TOP THREE illusion masters from a pre-selected group of TOP TEN finalists, chosen by an international committee of judges. Each winner took home a trophy designed by the acclaimed Italian sculptor Guido Moretti: the trophies are visual illusions themselves.

This week’s illusion, by vision scientist Alan Stubbs from the University of Maine, was a top ten finalist in the Best Illusion of the Year Contest. To experience the illusion, sit at normal reading distance in front of your computer screen and then lean forward toward the center of the image. An exploding supernova of brightness will ensue.

Out of the ten finalist competitors, the Best Illusion of the Year title went to “Rotation Generated by Translation”, an illusion developed by a team of mathematicians and illusion creators from Meiji University in Japan.